Dance and choir competitions were highlights of the January 4 Karen New Year Celebration in Roseville. The event also included a community resource fair, traditional foods and textiles, and a presentation on the Karen Community and their journey to Minnesota from Burma and Thailand. Choir competition included five different Karen Choir groups from St. Paul.
The New Year celebration was organized by leaders of the Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM), the Karen Community of Minnesota (KCM), and the Karen Culture Organization of Minnesota (KCOM).
It has been one month since Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines. The humanitarian crisis there continues even though the story has largely disappeared from the headlines of American newscasts. One local organization involved in relief efforts in the Philippines is the American Refugee Committee.
At least one thousand people gathered in downtown Minneapolis to demonstrate their disappointment and resolve following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. People of all ages and ethnicities rallied around more than a dozen speakers including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds and rapper Brother Ali, before taking to the streets for a march through downtown.
About a hundred middle and high school students from the Twin Cities metro area gathered at the Solutions Not Suspensions summit at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota on May 11. They came to share their experiences with discipline procedures in their classrooms and to discuss how they think disciplinary action should be in their schools.
“We want to give them the tools that will allow them to have informed conversations with people in positions of power at their school about what the discipline at their school looks like and how to make it more equitable,” said Brandon Royce-Diop of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership (MMEP), who organized the event with his MMEP colleague Cymone Fuller.
The Minnesota Senate has approved a bill that will allow same-sex marriage in Minnesota. The final vote was 37 to 30.
With the approval that came in the House of Representatives last week, the legislative work is now done and the bill will become law with Governor Mark Dayton’s signature.
After a three hour debate on Thursday, May 9, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed the same sex marriage bill by a vote of 75-59.
At the start of the day it was unclear if any Republicans would vote in favor of the measure. Eventually four of them did. Republicans Jenifer Loon, David Fitzsimmons, Andrea Kieffer and Pat Garofalo voted for the bill. Democrats Mary Sawatzky and Patti Fritz were no votes.
Minnesota’s House vote today brings the state one step closer to becoming the 12th state in the Union to allow same-sex marriage.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author Dr. Hawa Abdi was in Minneapolis at the beginning of April as part of her national book tour for Keeping Hope Alive– a memoir about her life and work in Somalia. Named the Mother Theresa of Somalia, she has offered shelter and aid to thousands in her country since civil war began in Somalia in 1991.
Minneapolis resident Manu Lewis has spent the past four years working to turn his life around and give back to society despite his criminal record. “I do a lot of volunteer work. I do a lot of community work,” he said. “I do a lot of organizing within the community that I reside in, but the fact still remains that society still sees me as a convicted felon. So no matter how much time I volunteer, no matter how many good deeds I try to do, I always have that stigma attached to me.” He looks to people like Michelle Alexander who are “trying to overthrow some of these policies that are keeping the community held hostage.”
Michelle Alexander is an author, professor, civil rights lawyer and advocate, who has represented hundreds of victims of racial profiling and police brutality during her career. With ten years experience advocating for change in the criminal justice system, she visited the St. Thomas campus in St. Paul on April 8 to share the thesis of her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
In recent decades, Cirque du Soleil popularized a gravity-defying act with its Aerial Silk performances. Several circus-arts studios in the Twin Cities are now translating that art form into an exercise routine. An aerial fitness class at the Rabbit Hole in northeast Minneapolis teaches students how to build strength while reaching new heights.
Shoestringer 